The invention relates to assemblies consisting of a tire mounted on a wheel and intended to be mounted on a vehicle and, in particular, assemblies containing a part forming a wheel hubcap designed, in particular, to mask said wheel and to present a wall surface visually more attractive and aesthetic than the wheel.
Taking the aesthetics and purely ornamental appearance into account in making a tire assembly mounted on a wheel for the vehicles designed today is acquiring ever greater importance. The designers of said assemblies are sometimes led to create ornamental motifs which occupy the outer surface of the tire (particularly the sidewall part extending between the tread and the part of the tire in contact with the wheel) as well as the surface of the hubcap equipping the wheel on which the tire is mounted.
In this context, it can be of great interest from an ornamental standpoint to create a motif presenting an overall unity on the visible surface of the hubcap as well as on the visible outer surface of the tire. A motif presenting an overall unity is understood to be a motif not presenting any apparent visual interruption between the surface of a decorated sidewall and the visible surface of the hubcap situated beside the decorated sidewall.
In the case of a motif presenting an overall unity, a first problem arises after mounting of the tire on its wheel at the time of placement of the hubcap: it is sometimes difficult to position the hubcap correctly in relation to the motif of the tire so as to repeat the unbroken motif between the part of said motif present on the sidewall and the part present on the hubcap; that is all the more true as said motif is not necessarily repetitive circumferentially and it is then imperative to match said two parts perfectly in order to come up with the desired ornamental motif.
Furthermore, it is often found, after rolling of the tire/wheel assembly mounted on a vehicle, that the tire has turned slightly on its wheel under the effect of the stresses exerted by the road on said tire and resulting from repeated accelerations and/or brakings of the vehicle; that rotation of the tire on its wheel, which does not at all affect operation of the mounted assembly, does lead, however, to a break of continuity of the initial ornamental motif between the hubcap and the sidewall of the tire.